Food for thought. Towards a future for farming

Book abstract:

'Blessed are the meek for they shall inherit the earth', whether or not they have the tools to work it or the know-how to exploit it. How the inheritance can be prospered is the essence of this small handbook in which the authors demonstrate how the European Union's Common Agricultural Policy and the WTO's Agreement on Agriculture are both designed to encourage an increasingly free-market, profit-maximising, destructive agriculture.

The work is organised over seven chapters. Chapter one gives the background to the industrialisation of farming promoted by the post-war needs for self-sufficiency in food. Chapter two addresses the CAP and the lingering but persistent efforts for reform. French agricultural trade unionism and the long march of the Confédération Paysanne are the focus of chapter three. International policies and the imbalances of food sufficiency and widespread starvation and malnutrition are examined in chapter four. European Union enlargement and the consequent impact of the increased numbers of small farmers present a 'Fateful choice for the CAP' which is the substance of the fifth chapter. The way forward is addressed in chapter six which features supply management, de-intensified agriculture and a genuine policy for rural development. The conclusion sets out a list of challenges which flow from the earlier chapters and point the way to a future for farming sensitive to social and environmental issues and competent to feed the world at its doorstep.

The work will interest scholars, students, policy makers and researchers engaged in the fields of agriculture and agrinomics and world trade issues.